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By Larry, October 5, 2014 1:20 pm

The Mighty Miles

Listen/Download Miles Davis – In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time Pt1 (45 Edit)

Listen/Download Miles Davis – In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time Pt2 (45 Edit)

Greetings all

As I was strolling through the dark alleys, of the memory banks, of the folders of my hard drive, looking for something to start off the week, I stumbled upon something that I had forgotten about.

This has nothing to do with the quality of the music, but rather the unusual presentation.

Last year, whilst digging in Pittsburgh I happened on the 45 you see before you today, and had to grab it.

I have a couple of ‘electric’ era Miles Davis 45s, and I’m always surprised when I find them that the folks at Columbia felt the need to edit these tracks down and slap them on a 45.

I have a hard time imagining someone in a bar pulling a nickel out of their change pile and slipping into a jukebox to hear tracks from ‘In a Silent Way’ or ‘Bitches Brew’, and they sure as hell weren’t aimed at teenagers and the ‘Close’n’Play’ market.

Whether or not these came out in pursuance of contractual obligation (i.e. ‘OK Miles, we’ll release two singles a year…”) or an add appeal to progressive radio programmers (who were certainly more likely to spin the album cuts, anyway) I do not know.

That said, I felt it was worth posting up these snippets (slivers?) of goodness just so you could check them out.

Dig them, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, October 2, 2014 12:17 pm

Jimmy Castor

Listen/Download Jimmy Castor – Rattlesnake

Greetings all

The end of the week is approaching and so is the Funky16Corners Radio Show. Tune in Friday nights at 9PM on Viva Radio for the best in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. If you ca’t be there at airtime, make sure to subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

While I’m pretty sure that most of you with a passing interest in old school soul and funk will already be aware of Jimmy Castor, I suspect that few of you have heard today’s selection.

Castor, a New York City native who’s musical career reaches back into the days of doowop, had a very interesting, and slightly convoluted path to success.

His first hit came in 1966 with the Latin flavored boogaloo of ‘Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Callin’ You’, which was an R&B Top 20 hit (making it into the Pop Top 40).

His mid-60s recordings for Smash were built on a similar frame.

As far as most casual observers are concerned, the next chapter in the Castor story comes in 1973 with his hit ‘Troglodyte’ (a song that was even on my radar as a 10 year old).

A few years back I was out digging at a record show when I pulled the record you see before you today out of a box of 45s.

The label – Compass – caught my eye, since I already owned 45s on it by Helena Ferguson (‘My Terms’) and the Ohio Players (‘Tresspassin’).

The NY-based label, which featured psychedelic pop alongside soul, only lasted from 1967 to 1968.

Castor recorded one 45 for Compass, ‘Rattlesnake’ b/w ‘Soul Sister’ in 1967.

‘Rattlesnake’ is a hard-edged soul number, complete with sound effects, and a groovy horn chart.

The flipside ‘Soul Sister’ is a slightly more melodic tune, both songs being written by Castor with his longtime collaborator John Pruitt.

Both sides of this 45 (which was also released in France on Barclay) were included – along with some of his other early sides (on Hull and Jet Set) – on an old Winley records comp called ‘From the Roots’, which – oddly enough – has resurfaced on iTunes.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, September 30, 2014 11:09 am

Alvin Cash

Listen/Download Alvin Cash and the Registers – Stone Thing Pt1

Listen/Download Alvin Cash and the Registers – Stone Thing Pt2

Greetings all

We’re keeping things in a Chicago groove today with something hot from the mighty Alvin Cash.

Though he was born in St Louis, Cash was forever associated with Chicago.

He (and his brothers) were discovered by Andre Williams, and had their first hit with ‘Twine Time’ in 1965.

Cash soon went out on his own, recording string of dance 45s with the Registers (and under his own name) through the mid-60s and into the 70s.

The tune I bring you today is one of the harder Alvin Cash 45s to find, and definitely his funkiest.

‘Stone Thing Pts 1&2’ was released on the Westbound label in 1970.

It has a heavy groove, and at 1:36 drops down into a tasty drum break.

Pt2 is more of a variation on theme, restating the groove, with the guitar (the rhythm guitar is especially nice) getting a little more shine.

So pull down the ones and zeros and cut yourself a slice of rug.

I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, September 28, 2014 12:02 pm

Listen/Download Burgess Gardner and the Soul Crusaders – Do It

Listen/Download Burgess Gardner and the Soul Crusaders – Think About It

Greetings all

The week is gearing up so I thought it might be cool to whip some funky instrumentals (of the Chitown persuasion) on you all.

The disc you see before you is one of those 45s that was always kind of hovering in the ether of the collector world, respected as a kind of ‘stock item’ in any self-respecting DJ’s funk box.

It was a while before I finally laid my hands on a copy, not because it was expensive (it’s not) or particularly rare, but because sometimes that’s how it is.

That said, I was very pleasantly surprised when Burgess Gardner and the Soul Crusaders’ ‘Do It’ arrived in my mailbox, and I discovered that it was in fact a Chicago 45.

I’ve made something of a habit chasing down New Orleans and Philadelphia records, but it seems like I piled up a stack of Chicago 45s almost as large without even trying.

This has everything to do with the Windy City being – alongside Detroit – the most important soul music hub of the classic era.

Here you had a grip of amazing labels, and in the background some of the most talented songwriters, producers and performers creating a stunning archive of amazing music.

One of those ‘background’ heavies was trumpeter, producer, composer and arranger Burgess Gardner.

Born in 1936, Gardner worked for years as a player in jazz bands, before turning his talents toward the Chicago soul scene. You can find his name on 45s by Monk Higgins, Darrow Fletcher, General Crook, the Vontastics, Chuck Bernard and many others.

He recorded a string of 45s for the More Soul label in the early 70s with the Soul Crusaders Orchestra, of which ‘Do It’ was the third.

I haven’t been able to date the record definitively, but it sounds like an early 70s joint.

‘Do It’ opens with some tasty fuzz guitar, bass and horns, before a string section joins in to give it that uptown feel.

The record’s A-side, ‘Think About It’ has a sweeter edge to it (featuring a muted trumpet lead by Gardner himself) , and in combination with ‘Do It’ sound like tracks from a great, lost Blaxploitation flick.

Garnder is apparently still active today, with his own jazz orchestra.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

NOTE: Commenter Chekovsky let me know that this is the instrumental version of General Crook’s ‘Do It For Me’

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, September 25, 2014 1:59 pm

Casey and the Pressure Group

Listen/Download Casey and the Pressure Group – Powerhouse

Greetings all

I hope the new day finds you well.

The end of the weeks I finally at hand, and so that means you should prepare to dial up the Funky16Corners Radio Show on the old radiola, or better yet, point your intertubes browser in the direction of Viva Radio, this and every Friday night at 9PM. If you can’t dig in at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

The tune I bring you today first slipped over the transom and into my ears years ago via a mixtape of Hammond tunes, passed on to me by a friend.

I knew nothing of the band, Casey and the Pressure Group, but I dug the tune, ‘Powerhouse’.

‘Powerhouse’ – at least for me – hit all the same pleasure centers as the Turtles’ ‘Buzz Saw’, moving at a similar pace and driven along by insistent Hammond organ chords.

Flash forward a decade or so, and the record turns up on a sale list (at a very low price indeed), so I took the opportunity to pick it uo and add it to my arsenal.

As it turns out, Casey and the Pressure Group hailed from the Netherlands, and released several albums of instrumental grooves in the early 70s.

They were led by keyboard player Cees Schrama (aka ‘Casey’), and somehow managed to get the 45 you see before you (‘Powerhouse’ was also the title cut of their debut LP) released here in the US on Jimmy Wisner’s Wizdom label in 1970.

Schrama had spent the latter part of the 1960s as the keyboardist for the Golden Earrings (one of the Netherlands top pop bands, later better known simply as Golden Earring).

Casey and the Pressure group had a European hit in 1970 with the tune ‘Soul Tango’ (the flipside of this very record) which is probably how it ended up getting released here in the States.

‘Powerhouse’ is a very groovy record indeed, and the US version of the 45 is pretty cheap, and well worth adding to your Hammond box.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, September 23, 2014 11:12 am

Ross D Wyllie

Listen/Download Ross D Wyllie – Do the Uptight

Greetings all

I picked up today’s selection a while back at a record show, because, in all honesty, how would I ever pass by a 45 called ‘Do the Uptight’?

Good thing I didn’t, because in addition to being a tasty dance floor hitter, ‘Do the Uptight’ has an interesting little back story to it as well.

When I first gave the 45 a spin, my assumption was that the singer was white, but I had no idea that he was also the host of an Australian dance party show!

Ross D Wyllie was a pop singer and host of the popular, 1967-1969 Australian TV show called (what else…) Uptight.

Wyllie had recorded a series of chart hits through the 60s for the Sunshine and Festival labels, eventually hosting Uptight, and then following the cancellation of that show, ‘Happening ‘70’.

Nothing Wyllie had recorded prior to (or after, for that matter) would indicate that he had something like ‘Do the Uptight’ up his sleeve.

The powers that be were probably impressed as well, since ‘Do the Uptight’ managed to get released in the US and the UK as well.

It is a fast moving, soul dancer, cut from a fairly standard pattern but infectiously energetic.

The tune was written by Aussie pop singer Johnny Young, who was also responsible for penning Russell Morris’s psych classic ‘The Real Thing’.

Ross D Wyllie continued to record, as well as working through the years as a TV personality Down Under.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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By Larry, September 21, 2014 11:20 am

Eddie Harris and Les McCann

Listen/Download Les McCann and Eddie Harris – Carry On Brothers

Greetings all

That said, there must have been something in the air in 1971, since Les McCann and Eddie Harris’s ‘Second Movement’ LP is jam packed with funky jams.

The tune I selected for your delectation this fine day is the mighty ‘Carry On Brother’.

There was a time in the late 60s/early 70s when McCann and Harris were the public face of soul jazz, thanks 100% to their 1969 smash LP ‘Swiss Movement’ and the classic ‘Compared to What’.

Both McCann and Harris had recorded plenty of top-shelf soul jazz during the 60s, and their coming together as a duo was everything it could have been and more.

With McCann working the keys and singing (not too shabby, by the way) and Harris working the Varitone electric sax (not everyone’s cup of tea, but one of my favorite sounds), the duo combined songwriting chops (and excellent taste in covers) with razor sharp playing.

‘Carry On Brother’ (written by McCann) opens with congas, electric guitar and McCann whooping, before he lays into the song’s socially conscious message.

The groove stated, things get a little bit far out, with some fantastic, wordless vocals by Cissy Houston and Judy Clay, and a hot band of NYC sessioners (Cornell Dupree, Jerry Jemmott and Pretty Purdie among them) working overtime.

If you get a chance to pick up a copy of ‘Second Movement’, do so, since you also get the excellent ‘Shorty Rides Again’.

I hope you dig the jam, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 18, 2014 11:03 am

Listen/Download The Naked Truth – The Shing-a-Ling Thing

Listen/Download The Naked Truth – The Stripper

Greetings all

Don’t forget that the end of the week is nigh, so the Funky16Corners Radio Show, dropping every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio isn’t far off. If you can’t be there at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

The track I bring you today is a testament to the value of carrying piles of otherwise useless facts around in your head at all times.

As has been stated here many a time, I spent a lot of years chasing down as much Philly soul as my greedy little hands (and not so little ears) could grab.

One of the things I always do – with records from Philly, or any other area – is to try and get a handle on the major players in any scene, i.e. musicians, songwriters, producers and arrangers. This information will allow you – in the absence of specific discographical data – to gather up 45s you might otherwise have passed over.

While I had never heard of the Naked Truth, when I picked up the 45, aside from the title ‘The Shing-a-ling Thing’ (note to fledgling collectors of 60s soul, pick up any and all ‘shingaling’ records), I noticed several names on the label that indicated that this was a Philadelphia-based record.

The disc was arranged by Richie Rome, a Madara-White production, and co-written by none other than Leon Huff.

Needless to say (though you can already see I’m going to say it anyway…) I put this one in the keeper pile and brought it home.

As it turns out, ‘The Shing-a-ling Thing’ is a groovy, pulsing dancer that has its share of devotees on the Northern Soul dance floors ( I would not be surprised to find out that it is Mr Huff tickling the ivories on the record).

My guess is that ‘The Shing-a-ling Thing’ was a throwaway b-side, with the cover of David Rose’s ‘The Stripper’ being the selling point (thus ‘The Naked Truth’).

Why this crew thought to resuscitate ‘The Stripper’ (which had been a huge hit in 1962) as a fairly hard-hitting organ instro in 1967 is a mystery, though I suspect that it has something to do with a popular commercial for Noxzema shaving cream, that used ‘The Stripper’ as its backing music that year.

Interestingly, the Naked Truth’s version of ‘the Stripper’ charted briefly in Philadelphia in the fall of 1967.

It’s pretty cool, which is why I’m including it here.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 16, 2014 11:03 am

Bob Brady and the Con Chords

Listen/Download Bob Brady and the Con Chords – Everybody’s Goin’ To the Love In

Greetings all

The tune I have selected to start out the week is a long time favorite, party-starter and dance floor annihilator.

Possessed of one of the great blue eyed soul voices of the classic era (though it was largely ‘borrowed’ from Mr. William Robinson of Detroit, MI…) Bob Brady led the Con Chords through a half-dozen stellar 45s on the Chariot label between 1967 and 1969.

Based in the Baltimore, MD area (check out my interview with Con Chords trombonist Larry Sprigg in the old F16C web zine), the Con Chords were popular up and down the East Coast, having their biggest success with 1967’s ‘More More More of Your Love’ which was a big regional hit in Philadelphia.

The record you see before you today was a minor local hit in 1968.

‘Everybody’s Goin’ To the Love In’ – co-written by Brady and Con Chords keyboard player Jim Samuel – is an absolutely brilliant 45, that is guaranteed to set any dance floor on fire (thus its popularity with the Northern Soul folks).

Opening deceptively quietly, with a muted trumpet and piano, it soon builds up to an explosive, pounding opening (dig those piano chords), followed by Brady’s trademark falsetto vocal.

The lyrics are all 1968-heavy peace and love (‘Everybody’s going to see the guru!’) but the arrangement is solid soul, and the record builds the excitement over and over again.

I LOVE this 45 and have played it out many a time.

I hope you dig it as much as I do.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 14, 2014 12:47 pm

Cosimo Matassa 1926-2014

Willie Harper – But I Couldn’t (ALON)
Willie West – Hello Mama (Deesu)
Tim Whitsett and the Imperials – Monkey Man (Ace)
The Stokes – Young Man Old Man (ALON)
The Stokes – Whipped Cream (ALON)
Warren Lee – Star Revue (Deesu)
Eddie Lang – Something Withing Me (Seven B)
Oliver Morgan – Roll Call (Seven B)
G. Davis & R. Tyler – Hold On Help Is On the Way (Par-Lo)
Eddie Bo – Fence of Love (Seven B)
Guitar Ray – Patty Cake Shake (Hot Line)
James Rivers – Tighten Up (Eight Ball)
Lee Circle – Other Delights (ALON)
Robert Parker – In the Midnight Hour (NOLA)
Roger and the Gypsies – Pass the Hatchet Pts1&2 (Seven B)
Bobby Powell – Why Am I Treated So Bad (Whit)
Art Neville – Hook, Line and Sinker (Instant)
Chris Kenner – Fumigate Funky Broadway (Instant)
Skip Easterling – Keep the Fire Burning (ALON)
Willie West – Did You Have Fun (Deesu)
Eddie Bo – Skate It Out (Seven B)
Curley Moore – Soul Train (Hot Line)

Listen/Download The Master: A Cosimo Matassa Sampler

Greetings all

I hope the new week finds you well.

It was at the end of last week that news came down that the legendary Cosimo Matassa had slipped the surly bonds of earth at the age of 88.

If you are not familiar with the name, if you are a regular here at the Corners, you are most certainly hip to the sounds that he helped bring into the world.

Matassa was, from the early 1950s, the recording/mastering engineer of record for most (not much, MOST) of the music – rock’n’roll, R&B, soul and funk – laid down in the Crescent City, as well as  a label owner and record distributor.

I won’t go into much detail here, because the extremely long and complicated story has already been told (and is still being added to) at the mighty Cosimo Code website by cats like Davie Gordon, Red Kelly, John Broven, John ‘Sir Shambling’ Ridley and Peter Gibbon.

There, they have endeavored to compile a list of recordings recorded, or mastered by Matassa, using his unique coding system.

Your next stop should be the Cosimo Code site, where anyone with even a passing interest in New Orleans music could get lost for hours.

When I heard that Cosimo had passed, I went back through the chronological lists at Cosimo Code and started pulling recordings out of my own archive as I saw them on the list, so that I could put together a representative (though hardly comprehensive) sampling of the records he helped birth.

These are exclusively 1960s recordings (mostly 1965-1967) with a couple of surprises (as in, I was surprised to see them on the list) and a few unusual things you might not normally find here at Funky16Corners. There’s a just a touch over an hour of solid 45s (and one LP track).

So, click on the link, give the old ones and zeros a spin, and head on over to the Cosimo Code and try to digest the mind-boggling breadth of Mr Matassa’s portfolio.

Condolences to those that knew him, and props to the CC crew for their amazing work.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 11, 2014 10:24 am

Carl Holmes and the Commanders on Italian TV

Listen/Download Carl Holmes and the Commanders – Mashed Potatoes Pt1

Listen/Download Carl Holmes and the Commanders – Mashed Potatoes Pt2

Greetings all

The end of the week is here, and before I blow your brain out through your ears, I thought it wise to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and every Friday night on Viva Radio. If you can’t be there to dig it at airtime, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, or grab an MP3 here at Funky16Corners.

That said, ka-boom.

That’s right.

How else can you describe a record like ‘Mashed Potatoes Pts 1&2’ by Carl Holmes and the Commanders?

Carl and the boys were one of the more interesting bands hovering on the outskirts of soul success in the 1960s.

They recorded an album and some 45s for Atlantic, as well as singles for Cameo, Verve and the local Philly labels Black Jack and CRS, included a young Jimi Hendrix in their performing line-up for a short time, and were – believe it or not – one of the models for Otis Day and the Knights in Animal House*. They even managed to make their way over to Italy and onto TV! (performing ‘Shout’ no less…)

The tune I bring you today, 1962’s ‘Mashed Potatoes Pts 1&2’ is a positively explosive, maniacal slice of R&B.

The band takes off like a buffalo stampede as soon as the record starts going, with a wild vocal, but things really get going in Part 2, where the singer (Pervis Herder, I think) loses his mind and starts scatting like a madman.

It is not hard at all to imagine a basement full of completely polluted undergrads rolling in their own filth as the band sets fire to the stage (just like in the movie, see?).

Carl Holmes went on to form the funky Sherlock Holmes Investigation and recorded the ‘Investigation #1’ LP in the early 70s.

I hope you dig the track, and give it a spin or three (or five) after you’ve gotten mellow as a cello.

See you on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*See the movie’s co-writer Chris Miller’s 2007 book The Real Animal House: The Awesomely Depraved Saga of the Fraternity That Inspired the Movie where he namechecks Carl Holmes and the Commanders and Lonnie Youngblood as among the frequent bands at the frat that inspired Delta House during his early 60s time at Dartmouth.
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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 9, 2014 11:10 am

Otis Redding

Listen/Download Otis Redding – Good To Me

Greetings all

Seventy-three years ago today, the greatest soul singer that ever was, Otis Redding, was born in Dawson, Georgia.

I have previously recounted in this space the story of how Otis was my gateway into the world of soul almost 40 years ago, and have reiterated many times that I hold no singer (soul or otherwise) in higher esteem.

Though his career only lasted for six years, it spanned most of the classic soul era, and influenced countless performers.

Redding was possessed of a mighty voice, a dynamic stage presence and was also a gifted songwriter.

I came to today’s selection the long way ‘round, as it were.

The first version I picked up was by Irma Thomas* (recorded in Muscle Shoals in 1968), and it was a while before I realized that it had been co-written (with Julius Green of the Mad Lads) and originally recorded by Otis in 1966.

The arrangement on Redding’s original is fairly spare, fitting since the structure of the songs is deceptively simple. The verse builds slowly, shifting ever so much when he states:

I’m going to keep loving you woman
For 20 more years
After that I’m going for 40
‘Cause I’ve got my will to try

The song has an almost gospel feel to it, a song of praise, not to God, but rather to a woman.

It moves at an almost glacial pace, but that’s the kind of environment where Otis redding thrived.

Unlike so many that came after him, he was able to fill what would seem like an insurmountably empty space, not with theatrics, but with concise, perfectly delivered emotion.

That’s why he was the man.

Happy Birthday Otis.

Keep the faith

Larry

* There’s also a very nice instrumental version by Odell Brown 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.